July 29 turned out to be an historic day for Sri Lankan cricket as the young team led by Dasun Shanaka beat Shikhar Dhawan's Indian team by seven wickets to clinch their first-ever T20I series over India. This also happens to be Sri Lanka's first bilateral series win against India since 2008.
India, playing again only with the five batsmen who were available to them, decided to bat first after winning the toss but could manage just 81/8 in their 20 overs. It could have been worse for the visitors but for Kuldeep Yadav's unbeaten 23.
Wanindu Hasaranga, on his birthday, took 4/9 in his four overs to all but seal the match and series for his team even before they came out to bat. Eventually, Sri Lanka got to the target for the loss of three wickets in the 15th over.
It was a tough end to the tour for India with Krunal Pandya testing positive for COVID-19, and his eight close contacts being forced to isolate leaving the team with just five batsmen to play with which included three debutants in Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Nitish Rana.
India had the option to not complete the series but chose to play the last two games and even though they lost the series, their gesture was hailed by the Sri Lankan team and fraternity for whom this series was extremely important.
Shikhar Dhawan did not score in the final match of the tour, though he won a lot of hearts for not only continuing to play the series but also for having a chat with several Sri Lankan cricketers after the end of the series-decider.
When asked about his chat with the opposition, Dhawan said, "The Sri Lankan boys wanted to know what's my process, I was just sharing my experience. I hope they enjoyed listening to it."
Here is how the Sri Lankan fans reacted and praised Shikhar Dhawan for his sportsmanship:
